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Rep Anna Eshoo

Eshoo Statement on President's Decision to Withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Agreement

May 9, 2018
WASHINGTON, D.C— Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) released the following statement after President Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran Nuclear Agreement:

"The President's decision to walk away from the Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA) represents an abdication of U.S. leadership. This move plunges America's relations with our European allies into uncertainty and sends a message to the world that the word of the United States can no longer be trusted.

"The JCPOA is more than an American-Iranian agreement. Five world powers (Germany, France, the U.K., Russia and China) all joined together to produce a plan with unprecedented concessions from Iran, together with the most rigorous inspections, restrictions and verifications regiment ever negotiated. By withdrawing from the agreement without any clear strategy for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran moving forward, the President has opened the door to the past—an Iran building nuclear weapons which is chilling and extremely dangerous.

"The JCPOA has forced Iran to give up 98 percent of its stockpile of enriched uranium, reduced its centrifuges by 75 percent, permanently agree not to pursue a nuclear weapon, and included automatic sanctions that would ‘snap back' into place if any of these commitments were violated.  Since its implementation in January 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has certified Iran's compliance with the agreement ten times.

"The agreement was working. World leaders and military and intelligence agencies around the globe, including 100 bipartisan national security veterans, 26 former top-ranking Israeli military and security officials, and over 500 French, British and German Members of Parliament agree that the JCPOA was working and that withdrawing from the agreement will lead to dire consequences.

"When the JCPOA formally took effect over two years ago, the world was only 90 days away from Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. The decision of the President is a green light to Iran to resume its nuclear capabilities."

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